Storm Large returns, sans Pink Martini

Provocative singer-turned-author at Anthology Thursday night

Storm Large (center), one of the two female singers in Pink Martini, poses with Bonita Vista High School Club Blue marching band members Lorena Lopez (left) and Kyle McConkey at San Diego's Balboa Theatre. Pink Martini returns to the Balboa for a Jan. 29 concert. Tickets go on sale this week.

Storm Large (center), one of the two female singers in Pink Martini, poses with Bonita Vista High School Club Blue marching band members Lorena Lopez (left) and Kyle McConkey at San Diego's Balboa Theatre. Pink Martini returns to the Balboa for a Jan. 29 concert. Tickets go on sale this week.

Rock singer turned pop sensation Storm Large’s career has been bubbling over in a very big way, thanks to Pink Martini. Last April, Large (her real name) assumed lead vocal duties in Pink Martini for four sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center that teamed the group with the National Symphony Orchestra.

“I did it by the seat of my pants,” said Large, who had barely a week to learn two-dozen songs — in four languages — for the Kennedy Center gig.

“Those kids are great! I hope they can play with me at Anthology,” said Large, 42, who performs Thursday night at the plush downtown club with her trio.

The gig comes on the heels of her unusually candid autobiography, “Crazy Enough: A Memoir,” which in turn follows her near-star-making gig as a finalist on the TV series “Rock Star: Supernova” in 2006.

Large’s Anthology show will downplay her rock persona, in favor of a cabaret-styled presentation that should appeal to Pink Martini fans. Speaking from San Francisco last week, she promised she would sing her underground hit “8 Miles Wide,” which uses metaphors to address a part of the female anatomy (it sounds like “Virginia”) that is usually measured in centimeters, not miles.

As of Tuesday, her tongue-in-cheek YouTube video for “8 Miles Wide” had been viewed 743,850 times.

“There probably is no commercial radio station in the world that would play ‘8 Miles Wide,’ ” acknowledged Large, who uses sanitized alternate lyrics when performing at all-ages venues like Anthology.

“I started to write it after I auditioned for Lilith Fair (the all-women’s music festival). I was rejected, because — they said — I was a dirty punk-rocker who sang raunchy songs. I wrote it as a (middle finger) to Lilith Fair. Getting rejected sent me on a tirade every time I heard someone like Jewel yodeling about their broken heart. There was a bit of sour grapes on my part.

“I wrote it in 2008 and told people it wasn’t even a song, it was me being a jackass! I played it for my piano player, who will be with me in San Diego, and he said: ‘Are you are out of your mind?’ I told him: ‘I guarantee that, by the time the chorus comes around the second time, the whole room will be singing it.’ And, sure enough, they did!”